The Underground Railroad (Oprah's Book Club)

The Newest Oprah Book Club 2016 Selection. Cora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. Life is hell for all the slaves but especially bad for Cora; an outcast even among her fellow Africans, she is coming into womanhood - where even greater pain awaits. When Caesar, a recent arrival from Virginia, tells her about the Underground Railroad, they decide to take a terrifying risk and escape. Matters do not go as planned - Cora kills a young white boy who tries to capture her. Though they manage to find a station and head north, they are being hunted.

My Song: A Memoir

Belafonte grew up, poverty-ridden, in Harlem and Jamaica. His mother was a complex woman - caring but withdrawn, eternally angry and rarely satisfied. His father was distant and physically abusive. It was not an easy life, but it instilled in young Harry the hard-nosed toughness of the city and the resilient spirit of the Caribbean lifestyle. It also gave him the drive to make good and channel his anger into actions that were positive and life-affirming. His journey led to the U.S. Navy during World War II, where he encountered an onslaught of racism but also fell in love with the woman he eventually married.

The Best of Les Brown Audio Collection: Inspiration from the World’s Leading Motivational Speaker

Study the science of achievement through the wisdom of the world's leading motivational speaker, Les Brown. In this collection of live keynote speeches, Les Brown's straight-from-the-heart approach will change your belief in what you can achieve. This popular collection of audio recordings includes Les Brown's most powerful speeches. You'll have unlimited access to his timeless insights and discover how to live the life of your dreams. You have greatness within you; it merely takes persistence to let it unfold.

Up from Slavery

Up from Slavery is the 1901 autobiography of Booker T. Washington detailing his slow and steady rise from a slave child during the Civil War, to the difficulties and obstacles he overcame to get an education at the new Hampton University, to his work establishing vocational schools - most notably the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama - to help black people and other disadvantaged minorities learn useful, marketable skills and work to pull themselves, as a race, up by the bootstraps.

Around the Way Girl: A Memoir

With a sensibility that recalls her beloved screen characters, including Yvette, Queenie, Shug, and the iconic Cookie from Empire, yet is all Taraji, the screen actress writes of her families - the one she was born into and the one she created. She shares stories of her father, a Vietnam vet who was bowed but never broken by life's challenges, and of her mother, who survived violence both in the home and on DC's volatile streets. Here, too, she opens up about her experiences as a single mother.

I Know What to Do, So Why Don't I Do It?: The New Science of Self-Discipline

You might think laziness, lack of willpower, and/or low motivation are to blame for the fact that you aren't achieving your goals. But fascinating research in the field of psychoneuroimmunology has revealed another, far more likely possibility. One with the potential to transform your life in a dramatic way.

Up Till Now: The Autobiography

This is the story of William Shatner’s half-century career and private life. It will take listeners from the streets of Montreal to regional theater and describe his early TV work and movies. It also includes stories from four series he's starred in, including T.J. Hooker, Rescue 911, Boston Legal, and, of course, Star Trek.

The Greatness Within You

In this all-new program from Nightingale-Conant, The Greatness Within You, you'll hear Les at his very best - inspiring you to tap in to the incredible potential for achievement, happiness, and influence that is lying dormant, just waiting to be unleashed!

Letters to an Incarcerated Brother: Encouragement, Hope, and Healing for Inmates and Their Loved Ones

After the publication of the best-selling Letters to a Young Brother, accomplished actor and speaker Hill Harper began to receive an increasing number of moving letters from inmates who yearned for a connection with a successful role model. With disturbing statistics on African-American incarceration on his mind (one in six black men were incarcerated as of 2001, and one in three can now expect to go to prison some time in their lifetimes), Harper set out to address the specific needs of inmates.

What I Know for Sure

After film critic Gene Siskel asked her, "What do you know for sure?" Oprah Winfrey began writing the "What I Know for Sure" column in O, The Oprah Magazine. Saying that the question offered her a way to take "stock of her life", Oprah has penned one column a month over the last 14 years.

This Time Together: Laughter and Reflection

Carol Burnett is one of the most beloved and revered actresses and performers in America. The Carol Burnett Show was seen each week by millions of adoring fans and won 25 Emmys in its remarkable 11-year run. Now, in This Time Together, Carol really lets her hair down and tells one funny or touching or memorable story after another.

The Power of Broke: How Empty Pockets, a Tight Budget, and a Hunger for Success Can Become Your Greatest Competitive Advantage

Here, the FUBU founder and star of ABC's Shark Tank shows that, far from being a liability, broke can actually be your greatest competitive advantage as an entrepreneur. Why? Because starting a business from broke forces you to think more creatively. It forces you to use your resources more efficiently. It forces you to connect with your customers more authentically and market your ideas more imaginatively.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Sent by their mother to live with their devout, self-sufficient grandmother in a small Southern town, Maya and her brother, Bailey, endure the ache of abandonment and the prejudice of the local “powhitetrash.” At eight years old, Maya is attacked by a man many times her age - and has to live with the consequences for a lifetime. But years later, she learns about love for herself and the kindness of others, her own strong spirit, and the ideas of great authors.

The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter

Carson McCullers was all of 23 when she published her first novel, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter. She became an overnight literary sensation, and soon such authors as Tennessee Williams were calling her "the greatest prose writer that the South [has] produced." The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter tells an unforgettable tale of moral isolation in a small southern mill town in the 1930s.

The Rainbow Comes and Goes: A Mother and Son on Life, Love, and Loss

Though Anderson Cooper has always considered himself close to his mother, his intensely busy career as a journalist for CNN and CBS affords him little time to spend with her. After she suffers a brief but serious illness at the age of ninety-one, they resolve to change their relationship by beginning a yearlong conversation unlike any they have ever had before. The result is a correspondence of surprising honesty and depth in which they discuss their lives, the things that matter to them, and what they still want to learn about each other.

Say You're One of Them

A family living in a makeshift shanty in urban Kenya scurries to find gifts of any kind for the impending Christmas holiday. A Rwandan girl relates her family's struggles to maintain a facade of normalcy amid unspeakable acts. A young brother and sister cope with their uncle's attempt to sell them into slavery. Aboard a bus filled with refugees - a microcosm of today's Africa - a Muslim boy summons his faith to bear a treacherous ride across Nigeria.

Sum It Up: A Thousand and Ninety-Eight Victories, a Couple of Irrelevant Losses, and a Life in Perspective

Pat Summitt, the all-time winningest coach in NCAA basketball history and best-selling author of Reach for the Summitt and Raise the Roof, tells for the first time her remarkable story of victory and resilience as well as facing down her greatest challenge: early-onset Alzheimer's disease. Pat Summitt was only 21 when she became head coach of the Tennessee Vols women's basketball team. For 38 years, she has broken records, winning more games than any NCAA team in basketball history.

Publisher's Summary

In this luminous memoir, a true American icon looks back on his celebrated life and career. His body of work is arguably the most morally significant in cinematic history, and the power and influence of that work are indicative of the character of the man behind the many storied roles. Sidney Poitier here explores these elements of character and personal values to take his own measure: as a man, as a husband and a father, and as an actor.

Poitier credits his parents and his childhood on tiny Cat Island in the Bahamas for equipping him with the unflinching sense of right and wrong and of self-worth that he has never surrendered and that have dramatically shaped his world. Without television, radio, and material distractions to obscure what matters most, he could enjoy the simple things, endure the long commitments, and find true meaning in his life.

Poitier was uncompromising as he pursued a personal and public life that would honor his upbringing and the invaluable legacy of his parents. Just a few years after his introduction to indoor plumbing and the automobile, Poitier broke racial barrier after racial barrier to launch a pioneering acting career. Committed to the notion that what one does for a living articulates who one is, Poitier played only forceful and affecting characters who said something positive, useful, and lasting about the human condition.

Here is Poitier's own introspective look at what has informed his performances and his life. Poitier explores the nature of sacrifice and commitment, price and humility, rage and forgiveness, and paying the price for artistic integrity. What emerges is a picture of a man in the face of limits - his own and the world's. A triumph of the spirit, The Measure of a Man captures the essential Poitier.

Poitier tells his story with humor, humility and wisdom. I am not usually interested in the life of celebrities but maybe I should be. The topics he covers are all over the place and he can make listening to anything worthwhile. His personal experiences coming to the U.S. before the civil rights movement, his selectiveness about the roles he would play and his insights into the films and plays he starred in are so interesting. I want to rent his movies and think about his comments. I liked his thoughts on parenting and belonging. Great audio. He should write more and this should be listened to, not read.

I have listened to dozens of audio books (I have a daily work commute of about 60 miles roundtrip) and this is the first time I have written a review. This recording compelled me to do so. This work is not a chronological, blow-by-blow description of Poitier's life. If you are looking for that, this is not a book for you. Rather, it is a summation of some of the significant events in his life and the effect that those events had on the development of his being and character. I found this approach to be refreshing. It is obvious that Poitier's ability to write equals, or surpasses, his ability to act. But what made this recording special is Poitier's reading of it. He pours the full dramatic power of his voice (which is substantial) into it. It is clear that he is speaking from the heart. It is almost as if the listener is sitting at Poitier's kitchen table, sipping coffee with him, while he tells you about his life. Like a good movie, this is a recording that I will listen to several times to make sure that I hear, and comprehend, all of the nuances in the story. Oh...and one more thing. There isn't the slightest hint of ego or self-aggrandizement in this work. It is purely from the heart. I highly recommend it.

Very good story telling. I especially enjoyed hearing about the author's early life and how he handled the many challenges he faced. Sidney Poitier reads the audio version in such a way that it sounds like he's telling you a personal story, not just reading a book that he wrote. And it's obvious he's having a great time doing it! The last chapters seem a little wordy, but overall I am happy to recommend this book. Poitier is an honest, introspective man, who is constantly learning and growing, even to this very day. Good job.

Engagingly read by Sidney Poitier himself. Poitier relates some of the extraordinary events that led him from poverty to Hollywood, reflecting on racism, the art of acting, and the well-lived life. At times digressive and a bit indulgent in his confessions and self-evaluations. Nonetheless, this is a life to know. Poitier's effort to bring his own racial consciousness to his acting and career choices is most inspiring. An excellent slice of Hollywood history as well.

This book shares life experiences with a careful, yet beautiful selection of words that never bores.
It keeps you eagerly listening to these words of wisdom learned through life's experiences, and now shared so eagerly, and unselfishly in an uncompromisingly hopeful need to enlighten us.
Truly, it's a beautiful sharing of life's experiences with the best, and most engaging narrative I've ever heard in this format.

How could a book narrated by Sidney Poitier not be good? His voice is perfection and he’s a brilliant actor to boot. Going by the title, I worried that he might put himself on some kind of spiritual high horse and then tell us how to get there too, but this is not the case at all. Mr. Poitier does not preach about his own spiritual awakenings but he does laugh at his own jokes, which I love.

From a tiny village on Cat Island in the Bahamas, to Miami, then New York City, and on to Hollywood…the author shares stories that draw a picture of his life’s path and his reflections on these experiences reveal what he’s learned. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It is an easy listen because it’s like a conversation but you are still left with something to think about.

I love audio books and this is the best one I have ever heard. Mr. Portier's reading of his book is what makes it riveting. It is one of those books that is better heard than read. He should take this on the road as a one-man play.
Five stars is to few.

It's so easy to listen to the author's voice and his own story, so what more could you want? The story is compelling and honest and opens up another world that existed all those years ago. Well worth a listen - highly recommended.

This wonderful book came to me when I was on an assignment in Ohio. I selected a man from Ghana to work with me on a project and gave him this book. Then I gave it to a sales associate in a fast food store because there was something special about him. It turns out he was waiting for just the right job, having recently earned a Master's degree. Then I gave it to a nursing home staff in Florida. All are African Americans and I am sure are benefitting from Sidney's understanding and sharing that he never knew or believed it bad to be Black. Bravo! Lovingly from a "white" lady who sees no "color"

A boring and pretentious book. The saving grace is that it is read by Sidney Poitier himself. Any other narrator and I probably would have switched it off. If I had had to read it, I would have given up long before the end. Buy something else.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Nancy

DevizesUnited Kingdom

4/5/07

Overall

"Slow and a good sedative!"

I was interested in the book as Oprah had raved about it, I like to listen to them in the car, but not this one as his voice would put me to sleep. Towards the middle end of the book, his recounts of the movie era are interesting but I would say it was disappointing.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Mich

3/18/15

Overall

Performance

Story

"Captivating and insightful"

This was a very exciting audio book. I was held by Mr Poitier's voice and transported to the scene of wherever he spoke about. There were a lot of insightful life lessons worthy of great consideration and application. I am grateful for Mr Poitier's honesty and ability to share his story; making it accessible to all. This is a timeless classic and one I will be returning to again and again.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

Report Inappropriate Content

If you find this review inappropriate and think it should be removed from our site, let us know. This report will be reviewed by Audible and we will take appropriate action.